M98 Mustang Mobile Gun System
The is a UNSC armoured vehicle. It is designed as a highly manoeuvrable tank hunter, capable of engage enemy armour, structures and personnel from medium to long range. It's main gun is devastating against armour and is regularly used by the UNSC Army for direct or indirect fire support, mostly in support of close infantry assaults. Its Eight wheels and tough suspension made it excellent at off road manouvres and it's stablised gun armed with a laser range finder and computerised firing system made it a favourite. The vehicle is built up from a titanium alloy chassis with bolted on mixed titanium/composite/AEGIS ceramic plating, giving it enough strength to withstand up to 70mm high velocity guns, though it's armour is compromised near instantly. It is powered by a powerful V8 hydrogen powerpack which burns the hydrogen fuel at a very high temperature with a synthetic carbon/silicon catalyst to achieve even better fuel consumption, allowing it to reach speeds of 107KPH. The engine powers all eight wheels. These powerpacks also power the on-board communications, sensors the gun and other electronic systems. The wheels each have independent adaptive suspension using adaptive Magneto-rheological dampers to ensure comfort, stability, control and agility and use nanotube skeleton run-flat tires, providing all the benefits of normal tires, with none of the drawbacks while being nigh-indestructible. on top of that, each wheel has titanium composite rims and fully articulate and individual suspension, with the front four being supported by titanium alluminide/AEGIS composite tire shields, protecting them from further harm. Each wheel can, individually, have its pressure modified to adjust its cross country ability. It features a V shaped sealed hull, with a high concentration of non-newtonian material with heavily sloped armour and ability to become amphibious, to a limited extent, allowing it to cross rivers and lakes to combat the enemy. It's raised engine exhausts also feature thermal shrouds to disguise the vehicle during operations. The vehicle contains a weight transference system linked to gyroscopes to achieve a perfect balance even over rough terrain, transferring inbuilt weights and fuel to keep the vehicle balanced and stable. The computer controlled power distribution system can distribute the power to each wheel accurately enough to maintain enough traction to keep it mobile and all wheels operate by a triple redundant drive-by-light control system. Like all hydrogen powered vehicles in the UNSC, it features a inbuilt AMG H/G Actuator. It is capable of converting up to 12 liters of water (from any source) into hydrogen quickly and efficiently, compacting any non-convertible detritus within the water on board and allowing a range of 200 kilometres from just overnight condensation catchments. This allows it to operate almost indefinitely in the field, where a supply of water is plentiful. The vehicle has a hydraulic ram door to the back and doors on each side, all three being equipped with emergency explosive bolts to remove them in case of severe damage or emergencies. On the roof it has a pair of opening doors and two hatches for the commander and gunner. The armour is covered in radiation protective liquid glass resins, infra-red suppressive paint and LIDAR/RADAR absorbent paint. The Driver is sat in the up armoured 'combat tub' which is the forward chamber, with heavily upgraded armour and has single crystal quartz glass windows, with self regenerative features and self polarising protective features (from blinding LASERs and bright flashes) and gold tinting to protect from electromagnetic interference, which can resist even heavy fire, from 70mm cannons, at least for brief periods. The Driver can lift up the forward screen to allow easy access, escape or just raise it slightly for unhindered observance. Sat behind the driver is the main gunner, with a holographic weapons station for controlling the main gun system, with a universal bus that allows any single vehicle to be adapted to use any number of weapon systems. Sat to the left in the main hull in the 'operations' seat is the Commander, who has access to the defensive turret and the electronic warfare and defensive systems, allowing him to provide short range support for disembarking soldiers. The vehicle's main gun is a 105mmmm cannon with hybrid night vision/active infra-red and optical camera with digital zoom, LIDAR, fume extractor, laser range finder and a laser defence turret. These are combined with the all round sensory network and smoke obscuring ordnance to improve it's combat effectiveness. The gunner is linked to a Target Acquisition Device to sight and engage targets. The main gun is fed by an autoloader, allowing the gunner to select between six rounds kept in a revolver, and switch these out between three different ammunition stows, with a co-axial M247H2 Heavy Machine Gun. The main gun is effective against enemy heavy armour, being capable of knocking out enemy Wraiths in a single hit. The gun can also be used for indirect fire, anti-personnel fire or anti-structure firing, by varying the rounds used. It can also be used against targets without a line of sight. The Mustang Mobile gun System is only used by the UNSC Army in its light mechanized units. It provides direct or indirect fire support against enemy targets, being capable of engage enemy armour, structures and personnel. UNSC Remarks "The Mustang is pretty wild, can't stand against tanks in a stand up fight but can put shells through them, easy." "On trials we maintained 95% accuracy over snow, sand, mud, bogs and hills against tanks. Thats impressive, right?" "We came cruisin' down the highway like the mean sonnofa beetches we are when a Remnant armoured column turns up, crossing the lower highway to Hartslev. We stopped, tagged their Wraiths and began to engage targets at will. Within Twenty minutes we had six confirmed Wraith kills, eight Shadows, a few Prowlers then too many ghosts the count. The few that tried to get away got chased down. No survivors, heh!"